There is basis for improvement of CT-based preoperative staging of patients with colorectal cancer. Supplementary modalities may be needed for correct staging of patients preoperatively, especially in relation to stratification of patients into neoadjuvant treatments or tailored therapy in patients with early cancers.

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Objective: To determine if minimally invasive right colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis improves postoperative recovery compared to extra-corporeal anastomosis. Background: Previous trials have shown that intracorporeal anastomosis improves postoperative recovery; however, it has not yet been evaluated in a setting with optimized perioperative care or with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: This was a multicenter, triple-blind, randomized clinical trial at two high-volume colorectal centers with strict adherence to optimized perioperative care pathways. The patients underwent robotic right colectomy with either intracorporeal or extracorporeal anastomosis. The primary outcome was patient-reported postoperative recovery measured using the "Quality of Recovery-15" questionnaire. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03130166. Results: A total of 89 patients were randomized and analyzed according to the "Intention-to-treat"-principle. We found no statistically significant differences in patient-reported recovery between the groups. Postoperative pain, nausea, time to ambulation, time to first passage of flatus/ stool, length of hospital stay, and pathophysiological tests showed no differences either. The duration of time to create the anastomosis was significantly longer with intracorporeal anastomosis (17 vs 13 min, P = 0.003), while all other intraoperative, postoperative, and pathology variables showed no difference. Conclusion: There were no significant differences in postoperative recovery between the two groups.